Shake Up

“Bountiful nature! Divine foods! History-rich Japan!” proclaims the colorful recruiting brochure from Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), invoking touchstones of the country’s history and culture, from samurais to sushi and manga to Mount Fuji, to convince students from other countries to study in the Land of the Rising Sun. It is a nation hungry for international students, both to fill seats that may be left vacant by the long, steep decline in its college-age population and to bolster the stature and competitiveness of its universities, only two of which made the top 100 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2012–13 (University of Tokyo was No. 27 and Kyoto University No. 54). Back in 2008, then-Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda took many administrators by surprise when he announced a goal of attracting 300,000 international students by 2020, two a half times the current level. He was following in the footsteps of a predecessor who in 1983 pledged to raise international enrollments from 10,000 to 100,000 by the turn of the century (they succeeded, but it took until 2003).

The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, and the ensuing meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant dealt a setback to the drive to attract more international students. Amid panic and confusion over the threat posed by the radiation leaks, tens of thousands of students were among the half-million foreigners who fled Japan in the days after the disasters struck. Although